Second life has been getting a lot of attention as far its bizarreness. But honestly, I don’t think it’s that bizarre of an idea. It’s not too far outside of the boundaries of many forms of entertainment that are already extraordinarily popular. I think it’s exactly the same thing as indulging in video or computer games, just more up front about its purpose & not masked by its name. Second life is obvious about what it is: it’s a second life. For most, it’s probably all done in fun. For some, it’s an escape from their first life. You can achieve the status you never actually could in reality; you can obtain the possessions that you can’t afford in reality; you can be exactly who you want to be. You can do the things that reality just won’t let you do.

But how is that any different than other electronic games? I don’t think it is. Whether you’re an all-star soccer player or some secret agent trying to kill everyone else, it’s all pretend. It’s all about doing things that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. The people doing it are looking for the same things as those involved in Second Life — it’s just achieved by taking a more subtle avenue.

I think that the creators of Second Life found something that people were looking for: a way to live in an alternate reality. But it’s not the first time the idea has been thought of; so let’s not give it that much credit. They realized that people have been trying to do this in so many different ways for years — and they just made it a lot easier.

After reading through some of these posts about social networking, I definitely see both the advantages and shortcomings of the rapidly progressing world of social networking via the internet. The pros are simple: it’s convenient, few limitations (like location), and it’s becoming more and more popular every day. But however appealing the convenience factor is, doesn’t justify that there are things to be wary of when getting wrapped up in communicating through the internet. As pointed out already, this type of social networking mitigates the need for any real life, personal, 3D interaction. This can be good. But it can also be bad.

As far as social networkings influence on the business world, the potential is outstanding. The mere fact that you can learn about someone, or even talk to them, while they’re across the world is amazing. As someone already pointed out, you can walk into a meeting already knowledgeable of everything about the person and what they can offer you, either through previous communication with them, or even by word of mouth through mutual contacts. It’s undeniable that this is progress for our world. Good. But we have to recognize that oftentimes the sort of information relayed in this way isn’t sufficient. I feel that people are too complex to understand by simply reading their profile or seeing how they filled in the blanks. It’s great for hard cold facts, but making judgments about anything other than that (such as their honesty, credibility, reliability), only opens yourself up to being mislead or deceived. Bad.

Yes, things like facebook make it easier for people to communicate. But what does it mean? Does clicking ‘add as a friend’ really establish some sort of relationship or foundation? No. I use it, I enjoy it, as most of us do, whether or not we admit it. It’s just easy & fun, and a great way to kill time in accounting. But again, making a judgment call about people because of it is pretty ludicrous. So many times I’ve heard a name mentioned, which spurs nothing but cutting remarks about them; when asked if they’ve ever met the person, they say no, and that their source was facebook. I actually think it’s sad that so many people base the quality of their lives on things like this. Along with misrepresentation, people start to use these things so much that they forget there are other ways to communicate. It is what it is — an online form of networking, sharing, and communicating; and people seem to be confusing it with reality. Our world is just so technologically-whatever that people begin to rely so deeply on communication in this form that they stop putting effort into real interaction — more and more people are simply becoming socially inept.

People have become dependent upon the internet. The fact that you can practically live your whole life without ever having to leave your home (or chair for that matter) perfectly explains why people are lazy. It’s not necessary to function like normal human beings anymore when we have everything we need at our fingertips, literally. But I’m not debasing the internet. At all. The fact that life is that much easier for everyone is great. Who doesn’t enjoy convenience? But the part that scares me is that people do begin to rely on it, unable to do simple things without it. Sometimes I wonder what people would do if suddenly all of the internet in world just disappeared. Seriously.

Social networking is great. And so is the internet. It’s just a matter of when people forget to look beyond it and recognize the significance of real human interaction. Though the internet opens an entirely new realm of opportunities, we can’t let that faze us to the point where we start devaluing traditional methods of networking and communication. I mean, they worked well enough to get us here.